Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/116

 clined to Compete unless big Purse of $150. Major Taylor refused to fulfill his obligation as a sportsman today. He developed a grand streak of yellow, and refused to meet the amateur champion, Thomas Summersgill of London, in a championship match race of one-mile. Taylor, it is stated, demanded a purse of $150, and would listen to no requests of the L. A. W. officials that he represent his country like a sportsman and meet the amateur champion.

“Secretary Henry Strummey of the I. C. A. stated tonight that hereafter there would be provided a penalty of one vear’s suspension for a rider who refused to go up against a champion of the amateur class, which suspension would be enforced the world over.

“However, Major Taylor suffers nothing for his action, but an absolute loss of reputation for true sportsmanship.”

I felt that I was well within my rights when I declined to race for nothing. Had the track officials been in the driver’s seat I would have been forced to ride Summersgill regardless of my personal feelings in the matter.

My real outstanding reason for not riding against Summersgill was the fact that the very next race on the program was the two-mile open which I was extremely anxious to win. Naturally, I felt that if I extended myself in a race against Summersgill I would not be in the best of condition for the two-mile event. It was well within the pale of possibility that I would have to ride three heats against Summersgill to determine that one-mile championship, so-called, unless I were strong enough to win the first two. Winning the first two would mean that I would have to extend myself to the utmost, therefore, minimizing my chances materially in the two-mile event which called for my participating in three heats, the first heat, semi-final and the final—providing I won in my heats.

Meantime Summersgill won his championship race on the day previous and, therefore, had a full day’s rest before he was called out to oppose me. If that race between Summersgill and myself was held, my opponents in the two-mile open event would have been taking it leisurely in their dressing rooms as Summersgill and I pedalled like mad for the honor that meant little or nothing to me.

That I showed good judgment in this matter was proven when I won my heat in the two-mile open, and later led the field home in the final of that event. Charlie McCarthy of St. Louis, won the first heat defeating his namesake from Toronto by a wheel, Nat Butler being shut out. I won the second heat from Frank Butler, Tom Butler winning the third heat handily from Jimmie Bowler.

One of the Montreal sports writers made the following comment in his paper about the two-mile race the next day:

“In the final it looked as if an attempt was being made to get